The message of the scriptures,
the one that the Apostle Paul called my gospel, the one we
three preachers believe that we have for our generation is
a very simple message. It says Christ did all of the
obeying, God did all of the justifying, the Holy Spirit gives a gift
of faith and repentance in time and experience to All those for
whom it is purposed to see it, understand it, rest in it, call
it their own, fellowship in it, and we have nothing else. That's
our message. And it is the one these men have
preached to us. My role is not to preach, to
facilitate rather. I've tried to do that. It's hard
though. But that's where we stand. My brother Parker comes to close
out our meeting, preach the gospel to us. I know you're prayerful
for him. And Bill, you're our friend. We hear you gladly. Now, this morning as we close
out this meeting, what I'd like to do is preach a word of comfort. I'm going to be preaching from
1 John chapter 2. That's going to be my text. And
the title of the message is the assurance of grace, the assurance
of grace. seems to be a missing element
amongst a lot of people who wear that flag of sovereign grace,
many times based upon the writings of some of the old writers known
as the Puritans or the Reformers, who dealt quite a bit in the
issues of introspection, looking within, and trying to find something
to base assurance on. In fact, it was very common for
them to separate Faith, that is, believing and resting in
Christ from assurance. And they would talk about the
gift of faith and the gift of assurance as being separate.
They'd say one can have faith, but not assurance. And I don't
believe that's so. I don't believe that's scriptural.
Now, there are degrees of faith. Faith grows. Speaking of the
gift of faith, the work of the Holy Spirit in us, there are
degrees of assurance, but they are together. I mean, you know,
Paul defined it in 2 Timothy chapter 1. He said, I know whom
I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day." Now, that's faith and assurance. That's the same thing. That's
the gift of God. And then we see the issues of
assurance as laid down in Scripture. And that's what I want to do
this morning. What does God's Word say about the assurance
of grace? Many of the old writers came
to see any assurance as being presumption. Well, there is presumption. There are people who die in their
sins, who are just as sure as they can be that they are going
to wake up in heaven. But there is a way to distinguish
what the Bible calls presumption or assumption and true gospel
assurance, the assurance of grace. Simply put, it goes like this.
Any assurance or comfort or peace or hope that you have that is
not totally founded upon and based upon Christ and Him crucified
is presumption. Now, the assurance of grace is
assurance that doesn't come from something you find within yourself. It comes from something that
Christ accomplished, the Son of God on Calvary. Now, let me
start out showing you that by turning to the Old Testament
in Isaiah chapter 40. And I believe this is one of
the main objectives of gospel preaching. You know, when we
preach the gospel, we always, and I'm sure these other preachers
will agree with me, what is our goal in preaching the gospel?
Well, our goal is to glorify God. We want to honor God. This
is a worship service. You don't worship God except
that you worship Him in spirit and in truth. And then we want
to exalt Christ. We often describe the preaching
of the gospel as just simply standing up and bragging on Christ.
Men like to brag on themselves and brag on their members. That
makes people feel good and it brings them back. But the only
thing that's going to bless God's people is to exalt Christ and
Him crucified and His finished work. And then we want to see
sinners saved. We can't save sinners, but God
does, and He does so by the preaching of the truth. He brings His sheep
into the fold. So we're seeking the lost sheep.
And then we want to edify, brethren. We want to edify you. We want
to build you up in the faith. We want to turn you continually
to Christ. That's not just a one-time thing.
That's every day. We want to see you grow, ourselves
grow, in grace and in knowledge. And so that's our goal. And one
of the main Tools is this. Look at Isaiah chapter 40 and
verse 1. He says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably, in your
concordance, in your Bible, that may say to the heart, but that
doesn't say it all. It's comfort to the heart. Speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. You know, when Paul was writing
to the Corinthians, admonishing them and correcting them, he
told them, he said, my goal in this was not to destroy you,
or to upset you, or to tear you down. My goal was to admonish
and to educate and to correct and to edify you. And so even
the words of admonishment, when we need to be admonished and
we need to be corrected from God's words, they are words of
comfort. And he says, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. That word warfare there, you
may find in your concordance, it says the appointed time, and
that's really a better translation. The reason the translators translated
it warfare, because it was a time of trouble. It was an appointed
time of trouble, a time of warfare, a time of oppression. There's
a two-fold application in this prophecy. First, Isaiah is prophesying
of the future of Israel in captivity. And she's in captivity for her
sins. And he says there's coming a
time when that appointed time appointed by God of captivity
and warfare and trouble will be over. It will be accomplished.
Her warfare is accomplished. And the reason is this, her iniquity
is pardoned and she has received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. What it was, that Israel, when
they were relieved later on, I think it was about 100 or 150
years later, referring to the text that Steve read, that they
were delivered from Babylon. They were not only delivered
from their captivity, but they were restored unto their land.
And that's what God did. She received double for all her
sins. Higher application, the spiritual
application, refers to God's elect, spiritual Israel, out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Now, when is the
appointed time that our warfare is over? That is our captivity
and our bondage, our condemnation, our accursedness. We'll turn
to Galatians chapter 4. When is that time for us spiritually,
eternally? And Galatians chapter 4 tells
us in verse 4, it says, But when the fullness of the time was
come, The fullness of the time means God's appointed time. God sent forth his Son, the Son
of God incarnate, the eternal I Am, made of a woman, that refers
to the seed of woman, that refers to his incarnation, made under
the law. He is both God and man, made
under the law. That means he became responsible
under the law for all the sins of all his people. The salvation
of his people was conditioned totally upon him. He became responsible
to do it all, all the requirements. that God put in force for their
salvation, he became responsible to meet those requirements. All
of the conditions, every bit of it, all the stipulations of
the law were laid upon him. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
9 and verse 6 and 7, he said the government was upon his shoulder.
That's the government of grace. That's the government of God's
kingdom. It was all upon his shoulder. He didn't place it
upon your shoulders. If he did, it would fail. He
didn't place it upon my shoulder. It was upon his shoulders. And
he has shoulders strong enough and big enough to bear that responsibility,
and he did. Now, why was he the Son of God? Why was the Son of God, who was
made of a woman, made under the law, why was all this taking
place? Verse 5, "...to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
In the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we received double for
all our sins. He redeemed us. He paid it all,
we just sang. He paid the penalty. He paid
the debt in full. We no longer owe any legal debt
to God's law and God's justice. It's fully paid. And He gave
us that. He performed that. He gave Himself,
His own precious blood as the redemption price for the sins
of His people imputed to Him. But not only that, He justified
us by His righteousness and gave us all of the rights and privileges
of adopted sons." So we receive double. Not only are we delivered
from our sins, but we're brought into a standing before a holy
God that can never change based on the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ imputed to us. And I'm telling you, it's a marvelous
thing. It's better than what Adam had
before the fall, isn't it? Adam had righteousness before
the fall, but it was a creature righteousness. It was changeable,
and it did change. But we're in right standing,
eternally accepted and justified before a holy God based on an
everlasting righteousness of infinite value, the righteousness
of God, which can never change. We've received double for all
our sins. Now, what greater comfort and
assurance is there than that? And then he goes on in verse
6, and because you are sons, not in order to become sons now,
you see this? Look at it. And because you are
sons, because you have been redeemed and you are justified, now because
of that, as the fruit of that and the result of that, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. That's
regeneration. That's conversion. That's the
new birth. That's the result, the effect. You see, of what
Christ accomplished. It's like you quoted there in
John 16, he said, it's expedient, that means necessary, that I
go away, that I do my work and finish that, that that warfare
be accomplished, that appointed time be over, because if I go
not away, the Comforter will not come, the Holy Spirit, who
is the Comforter there. And he says, he sent him into
your hearts crying, Abba, Father. Now, that term, Abba Father,
describes an intimate, close relationship of love between
the Father and His children. And really, in reality, only
those who have been redeemed and justified by Christ can say,
Abba Father, Abba Father. Now, with that in mind, turn
to 1 John 2. Now, these are the assurances
of grace. Now, it says in verse 3 of 1
John 2, He says, hereby we do know that we know Him. Now, the
word know there means more than just a recognition of mental
capacity. It means more than just we're
aware of Him or we know some facts about Him. That word know
there is the same as the word know when it talks about God
knows us, He knows us. Christ said, I know my sheep.
It's that intimate relationship. It's that redemptive relationship. It's the relationship that causes
us to cry, Abba, Father, of children who are in the bosom of their
loving Father. And he says, hereby do we know
that we know Him, that we know Christ. And he says, if we keep
His commandments. Now at first glance, many people
read a verse like that and they say, wow, if we keep His commandments. Well, I don't keep His commandments.
Well, what do you have in mind here? What is he saying here,
you see? Let's follow the Scriptures now.
First of all, this is another if statement in Scripture. He's
not talking about conditions sinners must meet in order to
know Him, in order to be in an intimate relationship with Him,
or in order to be saved. He's speaking of if here as an
evidence. of one who does know Him. That
Christ knows His sheep and they know Him, He said in John chapter
10, and if He knows you and you know Him, here's the evidence
of that. You'll keep His commandments.
That's what He's saying. Now, many people, when they see
the word commandments, they run scared because they're thinking
of the Ten Commandments. And you might automatically admit,
if you know anything about the Gospel, if you know anything
about the Scriptures or the Law, you'll say, well, I don't keep
the Ten Commandments. None of us do. We're all sinners.
Nobody can. The law entered that sin might
be exposed, guilt and condemnation under the law. So what is he
talking about? Well, he's talking about the
commandments of Christ. Now let's read on. Verse 4, "...he
that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him." The truth has not been implanted
in his heart in the new birth by the Holy Spirit if we don't
keep his commandments. That's what he's saying. But
verse 5 says, but whoso keepeth his word. Now connect that with
what he just said. Keeping his commandments is keeping
his word. The commandments here are the
words of Christ. The commandments here are his
sayings, his precepts. And he says, but whoso keepeth
his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Now that's
speaking, I believe, of God's love for us. And the Bible teaches
us plainly that this relationship of love is founded upon God's
perfect love for His people that is revealed and demonstrated
in His sending His Son to do for us what we could not do for
ourselves. 1 John 4 and verse 10 says it
this way, For herein is love, not that we love him, but that
he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. That word propitiation has to
do with the sin-bearing sacrifice who satisfied law and justice.
For without satisfaction, you don't have a propitiation. It
means reconciliation. That means God reconciled to
his people, and his people reconciled to God. On what ground? on the
ground of the Son doing His perfect work. Now when the Holy Spirit
gives us life and brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ,
that is the love of God doing His complete work within us.
God's love for us is perfect. Now our love for Him is not yet
perfect. He sheds abroad in our hearts
love so that we do love Him, but we're still full of sin.
We're still full of self-love. So that we say that the foundation
and assurance of our salvation is not our love for God, but
His love for us. Our love for Him is only an evidence
that His love has been shed abroad in our hearts. That word perfected
there doesn't mean that we love God perfectly, it means He loved
us perfectly. And it also means that the Holy
Spirit has done that perfect, complete work of the new birth.
But yet we have a warfare within ourselves and we must fight the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. However, Christ has already
accomplished that warfare for us in the sense that we will
one day be delivered from the very presence of sin. You know
that's sure and certain? And you know how I know that?
Because Christ died, was buried, and arose again the third day.
So he said, Whosoever keepeth his word, in him barely is the
love of God perfected. And hereby know we that we know
him, that we are in him, that we are connected with Christ,
united to him. Now, Brother Ken wrote an article
on this verse, on keeping his commandments, which I thought
was excellent. I'm just going to tell you what he said in the
article. What is it to keep his commandments? Well, we keep his
commandments when we, by the power of God's Spirit, repent
from our dead works and our idolatry. when we see the futility and
even the wickedness of trying to save ourselves by establishing
a righteousness of our own. That's what he said. Let me ask
you a question. Did Christ ever command any sinner to seek salvation
by their works of the law? Did he ever command that? Absolutely
not. In fact, God never commanded
a sinner in the Old Testament or the New to seek salvation
from Him by their law keeping. So if you're seeking salvation
by your keeping of the law or trying to establish a righteousness
of your own, I'm telling you right now, you're not keeping
His commandment, for He forbids that. He says that's wicked and
evil because it denies the glory of God. It exalts the sinner. It denies Christ and what He
accomplished and His righteousness. and His blood. So He never charged
or commanded or encouraged any sinner to seek salvation by their
works. He forbade it. He said, if you
seek salvation by works, that's death. By deeds of law shall
no flesh be justified. But He did command sinners to
repent or perish. Repent of what? Repent of ever
thinking that you could be righteous or holy or saved by your best
efforts to keep the law. Then we keep His commandments
when we come by the power of the Spirit to Christ in faith,
when we believe on Him. They asked one time, what are
the works of God? And Christ said, this is the
work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. We submit
to Him and His righteousness as that which alone saves us
and keeps us and brings us to glory. That's keeping His commandments.
That's a sinner seeking mercy. That's not a perfect law keeper
coming to God trying to get patted on the back. But that's a sinner
seeking mercy. We believe in Him. We trust in
Him. We rest in Him. Are you resting
in Christ? That's keeping His commandments.
And then we keep His commandments when we love the brethren. He
says that down here in the New Commandment. Love Him. Love our
brethren as He loved us. And that love doesn't mean that
you always feel like loving. Because we don't always feel
like loving, we're not always lovable. But it's a powerful
grace that God has put within us to look at each other and
say, this is one whom God loves and one for whom Christ died.
This is my brother in Christ. And let me tell you something
about this thing about loving the brethren now. Two things.
God does not allow us to set the standard of love. He sets
it. One brother, I think, read it Friday night. I think it was Friday. In 1 Corinthians
13, there's a standard of love. And that's perfect love for which
we're to aim. Not in order to be saved. Not
in order to be holy. For our best efforts do not save
us or make us holy. You see, that's what Christ has
accomplished. But in order to glorify God. You see, our efforts
to follow Him, to love one another, to obey Him, do not save us. Christ saves us. They don't make
us holy. Christ makes us holy. They don't
make us righteous. They're not our righteousness
before God. Christ is, and Him crucified. But they're the fruit.
We're fruit bearers. I tell people all the time, we're
not fruit producers. We don't produce fruit. We bear
it. He's the vine. We're the branches. We just bear
the fruit of His power and His goodness. And so our efforts
to obey in the glory of God, again, not to be saved, but because
we already are. They glorify Him. They honor
Him. They represent Christ. and His love to us. So this thing
of loving the brethren, God doesn't allow us to set the standard.
And I want to tell you something else. God doesn't allow us to
choose who to love. Did you hear that? God doesn't
allow us to choose who to love. He chooses who to love. Now,
if we chose who to love, you know what that would bring? Division.
Confusion. But if God chooses who we love,
that brings glory to Him, honor to Him, and unity. That's the
key. Let me show you some Scriptures here. Let me, first of all, turn
to Hebrews chapter 6. Now, in this thing of the assurance
of grace, first of all, I want you to see that it is God's will,
His revealed will, that we who are looking to Christ have assurance,
have this comfort that our warfare is over, it's accomplished. And
we have received double for all our sins in Christ. Look at Hebrews
chapter 6 and verse 16. Now, he's talking about God's
promise, God's promise to Abraham. That's the promise of Christ
who was to come. And he's using Abraham as an
example. And look at verse 16. Now, he says, "...for men verily
swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife." What he's saying there is that when men
strike an agreement, or a covenant, and they want to seal that covenant
to where there's no disagreement and no strife and no doubts about
it, they will swear an oath, and they always swear by something
greater than themselves. Some people would say, I swear
by this, but it's always something greater than themselves, and
that's how the oath was struck, and that's how it was sealed.
Well, look at verse 17, wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise Now who's that? As those who
are in Christ. That's referring to believers.
And just like Brother Ken said, now notice here it says we're
heirs. What we have in salvation and blessedness and eternal life
is an inheritance. You didn't earn it. Somebody
else did. And he died. And it was bequeathed to you.
Christ is the great testator you see. So in the promise of
God. And he says, God's promise, his counsel, and
his oath, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
what? What does it say there? Strong
consolation. Anytime I read that verse, I
think about Simeon. When he picked up the Christ
child, he said, the consolation of Israel. the comfort, the peace,
the Prince of Peace. And he says that we might have
strong consolation. Now here's what he's saying here.
When men strike an agreement, they swear by something greater
than themselves. But now when God swears an oath, he cannot
swear by anything greater than himself, for there is nothing
greater than God. So what does God do? He swears
by Himself. And here's the two immutable
things. God's counsel revealed in salvation by His grace. How
He can be just and justifier in Christ. His promise to save
sinners by Christ. God made that promise and then
God swore an oath by Himself. What does that mean? That means
God engaged everything that He is. behind keeping that promise
so that it could not fail. Two immutable things. God's promise,
He's faithful, and God's oath, He's able. Two immutable things. Listen, these people who talk
about Christ dying for sinners who end up in hell, that's impossible. Why? Because of God's promise
and God's oath. His promise, He's faithful and
He's able. He swore by Himself. He engaged
every attribute of His character. to save all whom he promises
to save. God never made a promise he didn't
keep or couldn't keep. And then he says that we might
have strong consolation, comfort. Comfort in God's promise and
comfort in God's oath in Christ. Now who's to have this consolation?
Look at it. Who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, Which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul," an anchor is something that holds something
in place, can't be moved. "...both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil." Now, who entered
within the veil? Christ did. "...upon the completion
of his, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," after
the order of an eternal priesthood. So that back over here in 1 John
2, this is what he says in verse 1. Look at it. My little children,
these things write I unto you that ye sin not. Now that's our
goal. Our goal is to be like Christ.
We can have no lesser goal. And he says, and if any man sin,
that's not just in case you do sin. That's recognizing the fact
that we are all still sinners continually. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That word advocate
is sometimes translated comforter. He is our advocate. He's seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. That speaks of the eternal blessedness and power of His
finished work on Calvary to save us from our sins and to make
us righteous before God. And it says, verse 2, he's the
propitiation for our sins. He's the sin-bearing sacrifice
who made satisfaction to God's law and justice. But not for
ours only, but also for the whole world. Now, he's not talking
about every individual in the world there. He's not talking
about those who die and go to hell. For if he died for those
who go to hell, then what does his death mean? Nothing. It's
not like the priest in Chicago said, hell is not a monument
to God's failure to save everybody he wanted to save. It's not.
Christ did not die for any who perish. The Bible says he put
away our sins on the cross. If he put away your sins, there's
nothing for you to go to hell for. God could not justly send
you to hell. But what does he say to the whole
world here? He's talking about God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation all over the world. Not just the
Jews, but God has a people all over the world. And they're going
to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. Christ is our surety. He is our surety, you see. And
then look over at 1 John 1, just across the page here. First of
all, it's God's will that we have assurance. Next, it's God's
Word. It's the reason God's Word was
written. It's the reason He gave us His
Word. In 1 John 1 and verse 3 he says, "...that which we have
seen and declared we unto you, that you may have fellowship
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Your joy may
be complete. What greater joy can we have
than the assurances of grace? And then turn to 1 John 5 and
look at verse 11. He says, and this is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. That's why this
was written, for our comfort, for our assurance. And then one
more turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. It's God's will that we have
this assurance of grace in Christ. It's the reason God's word was
given to us that we might have this assurance of grace in Christ,
for these scriptures speak of Christ and Him crucified. And
then God commands us to seek it. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1,
if I can find it here and get there, right before 1 John, isn't
it? I thought I had it marked. 2 Peter 1, look at verse 10,
he says, Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure. For if you do these things you
shall never fall. Now notice the order there. It's
not make your election sure, it's make your calling and election
sure. How do we know that we're God's
elect? It's by our calling. What calling
is he speaking of? The calling of the Holy Spirit
in the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. that brings a
sinner seeking mercy at the mercy seat. Have you fled to Christ?
Have you rested in Him? Is He your hope? Don't look within
yourself to find your grounds of assurance. You won't find
it. And if you do, that's self-righteousness. But look to Christ alone. The
Bible says this, it says, Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? For you're doing enough today.
No. It says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. It goes on to say, Who is he
that condemneth? For you've been a good boy this
morning. No. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again and
is seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession
for us. Somebody says, well, I look at
myself and I ask, have I done enough? Well, my question to
you is, enough for what? Have you done enough for what?
Have you done enough of the works of the law to save yourself?
Absolutely not. You'll never do enough. The question
you ought to be asking is, has Christ done enough? And the answer
is yes. Have I done enough to make myself
holy? No. Has Christ done enough? Yes,
He did. He is my holiness. Have I done
enough to make myself righteous? No. But Christ did enough. He
is my wisdom, my righteousness, my holiness, and my redemption. He is our assurance of grace. Look unto Him and keep looking
to Him. Run the race of grace looking
unto Jesus, the author and what? Finisher of our faith, of our
salvation.